Emerson College Top Questions

You learn your skills in class and then your encouraged to take those skills and apply them to extracurricular activities. Everyone is involved in numerous things. Academics relate to extracurriculars like no other school.

Awesome. Emerson is a great place for students who want professors that know their names and want one-on-one time with them. Small class sizes and friendly teachers. Many great conversations and open opinions.

reletivly small class sizes. Teachers actually take an intrest in individual students. For General Education classes, the curriculum is not too demanding.

Gen-Ed classes are the easiest shit you will ever take in your life. Professors don't seem to give a shit--Emerson is not about gen-eds. Most of your major courses will be really interesting yet they will kick your ass. Emerson really prepares you well for the real world and your field. Professors are usually very helpful and friendly.

A lot of my classes aren't that much bigger than my high school classes. The biggest class I was in was a lecture class of 70 students, and every one of my professors has known my name. My favorite class is definitely Introduction to Media Production. For a film student there's nothing better than getting to do a lot of hands on projects on your own and in groups and have them critiqued... and not having to wait until you're a junior to do it. Students don't tend to study as much as they tend to devote their time to working on papers or projects. So much of what we do here is hands on. Class participation is not only common, but required in most classes as part of the grade. Some teachers also count online participation on class discussion boards if you're not the kind of person to speak up in class. Emerson students love to have intellectual conversations out of class. Don't get me wrong, it is definitely not all we talk about, but it's nice to be in a setting where you can talk about film or theatre or journalism with people who actually know what your talking about. Students are very competitive. Most students are pursuing careers that require them to be. My major is Visual and Media Arts with a concentration in Writing for Film and TV. I love that I get the most screenwriting classes possible, but am also learning every other aspect of filmmaking that I'm interested in too, and have plenty of elective for Junior and Senior year. Education at Emerson is geared toward getting a job while doing what you really want to do within your specific career area. No professor at Emerson will ever tell you to sacrifice your creativity to be more marketable, but no professor will tell you that your art if more important than earning a living either.

The classes are so small here and Emerson and I love that. The largest class I've had so far has been 70 students while my friends at larger state schools have up to 500 people in their classes. Most of my classes have between 20 and 30 students and some have even less. My teachers all know me and I feel like I can approach all of them. The students here are pretty competitive given the nature of the school, but I've never felt too much pressure because of it. If you're confident in your work and you do your best there's no reason to feel out-shined by other students. Education at Emerson is based almost solely towards getting a job. While I do wonder sometimes what happened to my academic classes, I love seeing the way all of my classes have to do with each other. It's so much more interesting learning when you know the relevance of every one of your classes.

Classes are easier than you would think. There is a lot of free time, but dont let that get to your head too much or else you will get behind.

Academics are one of the best things about this school. The best part about them, is that there are relatively few gen-eds, so you can take a ton of electives and courses within your major that you find interesting. Another great thing is that most courses in your major aren't heavily sequential, so you're not stuck taking a sequence of two boring classes in order to be able to take an upper-level course you find interesting. After sophomore year you have pretty much every requirement taken care of and it's free reign from there.

Most of the professors are good, especially about being available for office hours, which is important because you're unlikely to run into them outside of school because it's such a big city. The required classes tend to be quite boring and it feels as though most of what I've "learned" in them is common sense, but the more focused, major-related classes are much more interesting and fun to be in.

The classes are pretty small most of the time, it depends on the class though. All of my professors know my name and what I'm interested in studying which to me is a very good thing. The most unique class I've taken so far is puppetry (a lot of schools don't offer that course) which is open to seniors and graduate students. The education is geared toward learning for its own sake but the professors are great about helping you get jobs too.